Instead, most bikes in Rwanda are made out of wood! That’s right, wooden wheels and frames that remind me of the bike in the “Flintstone” movie. Only one out of 40 Rwandan’s can afford a 40+ year old, broken down, jury rigged, single speed steel bike. To own one of these bikes is a luxury, a status symbol like that of driving a Mercedes in the modern world.

Thomas Frischknecht is a Swiss mountain bike racer, often called Europe's Elder Statesman of mountain biking because of his extraordinarily long career at the top level of the sport. A professional since 1990, he was on top of the Mountain Bike World Championship podium for the first time in 1996 and most recently in 2004.

Learn more at: www.frischi.ch

For the many coffee farmers in Rwanda, Tom designed a bicycle ideal for a third world country, the “Coffee Bike”. Its low maintenance, inexpensive components and remarkably long wheelbase with a huge rack to transport all kinds of loads of 100 kg or more. 2,000 of these bikes are already in use, with more on the way. They are part of a micro-financing project. The project already has a huge impact in the country. The bike delivers hope for a better future.

A side product of the project is “Team Rwanda”. Kind of the marketing tool for “Project Rwanda”. The team is a privately organized “national team” which is under the lead of Jock Boyer (who was the first American to race the Tour de France and in 2006 won the Race Across America). He lives in Rwanda, forms and organizes the team and travels to races with them.

Last years Cape Epic was their first international race - ever. The day before the race, the riders jumped on a mountain bike for the very first time in their lives. Despite this, they finished one of the longest and hardest MTB races in the world with some impressive results.

This year “Team Rwanda” had three teams in the race. Tom Ritchey and me as ambassadors of the project, Jock Boyer with Abraham Ruhumuriza and Nathan Buyuskusenge with Adrien Niyonshuti. To simplify these complicated names they have nicknames for everyone, mostly related to animals. Abraham is “Punda”, the donkey. Nathan is “Inchugu” the lizard. Adrien is “Dri Dri”, what ever that means and I was called “Inzoka” the snake. They gave me this name after they saw me riding on the single track.

Imagine, these guys live in Rwanda without electricity and running water in their homes. Passports had to be made, not that easy without any papers. Punda had three birth dates! Just like in a dream they entered an airplane and flew to a different world. Nearly everything they see and do, is happening to them for the first time. Like taking a bath in a bathtub. At the start in Knysna they shared a double room with an extra bed. They preferred to share the bed on the floor. Because they stick together like glue. I think I never saw them separated the whole 12 days I was with them. I think they felt more comfortable trying to manage their new lives together instead of being lost by themselves. But as much as they were struggling with certain things as refreshing was their happiness and thankfulness.

Already in stage three flat tires held all three teams back. As long as I had inner tubes and CO2 cartridges, I was able to help out fixing their flats and ride them back into the group. While doing this, Tom and I got separated; which caused a 60 minutes time penalty. After that they were left on their own. Punda crashed and had such a deep wound on his palm, I had no idea how he could hold on to his handlebar. I felt so sorry for them because everything went wrong on this day and I was accepting that everyone was going to be down after all that happened. I was wrong! Instead they were laughing by telling all these stories of what happened to them. Listening to Punda it almost sounded like crashing on the sharp rocks of the Karoo in Africa is a positive experience. It’s that positive way of thinking that impressed me so much. Things are the way they turn out to be and you can only do what you can do. This is the way they look at things. And even when they gave everything they had during the race; they always stayed calm, no matter what. These are just few things I learned from them.

They learned too and got better every day. Sometimes they made it in the top 20, out of 600 teams. At the end they finished in 22nd place! By the way, Tom is still going strong too. At the age of 51 he is still very competitive and more the racer than the businessman. The pace we were riding was not as fast as the pros, but for me it was definitely not a walk into the park. Stages up to 148km and within seven days 41 hours in the saddle are even for a pro like me not usual business. Maybe it was the early wake up calls that did not suit me too. 966km and 18529 meters of climbing was not only product testing but also partner testing. We sure had our rough times. At the end all the struggles where left behind and we finished in great 39th place.

Even if the Rwanda Team riders never step on top of the podium, this team is impressive. At an event like the Cape Epic, there is only one first place, but a lot of winners. Team Rwanda was certainly a winner by the sympathies they got from the rest of the pack. In their own country they are highly respected. When they go back and talk about their experiences they had on a mountain bike, they create hope and happiness. This is what Tom has in mind with his vision for the ongoing evolution of the bicycle, those unheralded moments that change lives.

To support the team or learn more about their experiences with the project, visit www.projectrwanda.org.